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Automatically mute sound before meetings

09.10.2009
If your only Mac is a laptop, and you take it with you to meetings, classes, or other such activities, you're probably used to muting your machine before the event starts, then unmuting it once the event ends. While this is clearly not hard to do, it can be somewhat embarrassing if you forget to mute your Mac, only to have it loudly announce the arrival of a new e-mail, Tweet, or iChat message during the middle of a lecture.

Using a very simple set of scripts based on a submission by Mac OS X Hints reader Andrew J. Freyer, you can greatly reduce the chances of an audio outburst during your regularly-scheduled activities, as long as you've scheduled those activities in iCal. Here's how to do it. First, you need to create two simple one-line AppleScripts.

Launch AppleScript Editor in 10.6 (in Applications -> Utilities) or Script Editor in 10.5 (in Applications -> AppleScript), then copy and paste this line:

set volume with output muted

Save this as (or whatever you'd like), with the File Format pop-up menu (in the Save dialog) set to Script. Save it somewhere where you won't accidentally delete it. Create a new script in Script Editor (Command-N), and then paste in this command:

set volume without output muted